When: Sunday 1st September 20234, 13:30–18:00
Where: University of Barcelona
Addressed to: 20-40 climatologists / meteorologists
Registration: opens soon. Early Bird registration by 30th June: €40, standard registration until 15th August: €60

Although the specific target is Early Career Scientists the workshop is open to all.

Intro

As scientists and communicators of climate change issues, we think our goal is to trigger interest and mobilisation in a wide audience, while trying to limit feelings of helplessness, discomfort, and anxiety. The title "mindful climate communication" reflects the fact that we want to raise awareness of the diverse psychological and social components that are involved in climate communication and that require thoughtful engagement with the target audience.

Objective

Because of the increasing occurrence of impactful weather events, climate change finally makes headlines in the media. The problem of how to communicate climate change is however a sensitive topic amongst meteorologists and climate scientists, particularly in Europe's climate-change hotspot – the Mediterranean region.

The aim of the workshop is to foster an interdisciplinary discussion on proactive strategies for communicating climate facts, impacts, and possible solutions. The talks and discussions will raise awareness on psychological and social factors, which scientists encounter when engaging in public communication (e.g., interactions with media and activist movements, cognitive biases, solution-based communication). The workshop will discuss and provide strategies for communicating sensitive topics to a wide public, leveraging on examples of climate communication from the Mediterranean climate-change hotspot and elsewhere.

Programme

13:30–15:30: Talks of Experts (~30 minutes each)

  1. Emanuele Bompan (journalist): Scientists and climate communication – a journalist's point of view.
  2. Irene Ronga, UNITO (neuroscientist): Cognitive biases and why we should consider them when doing climate communication.
  3. Clara Pogliani (from CiSaràUnBelClima, expert on climate activism): Climate activism and the challenges at the interface between activism and science.
  4. Imke Hoppe, LMU (expert on climate communication): Strategies for climate communication starting from the example of communicating weather extremes.
15:30–16:15: Coffee Break
16:15–17:00: Group Activity – in preparation of Round Table.
17:00–18:00: Round Table with Speakers – audience actively involved.

Organizing committee

Funding

Kindly provided by FutureMED COST action and EMS.

This workshop is based upon work from COST Action INFOGEST, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.